Hitch-minding pulleys of the aforesaid type generally comprise a pair of yoke arms mounted on opposite sides of a rotatable rope sheave or roller allowing the rope to smoothly roll thereover in use during climbing activities. Each yoke arm is swivelable relative to the other in order to allow a rope to be part-wound onto the pulley roller and includes two or more circular apertures, each for receiving in combination with a corresponding aperture on the other yoke arm a respective carabiner, which may typically be connected to a climbing harness or climbing equipment such as a rope wrench. Where multiple circular apertures are provided, they are therefore suitable for distributing tensile loads borne by the pulley in proportion to the tensile force acting on each circular aperture. As a consequence, frictional losses occur where there is an imbalance caused by varying magnitude of loads borne by each respective circular aperture and varying angular direction of such loads during climbing. Accordingly, the angular position of the circular apertures relative to each other and the or each pulley sheave is necessarily a compromise based on experience of typical load values being carried by the pulley during climbing activities and typical changes to the position of the or each load relative to the rope as it passes through the pulley or due to differing physical characteristics as between one climber and another, such as the difference between the position of the chest harness attachment point and the seat harness attachment point which occurs when climbers of different size use the same equipment.